8
December 1691 A.D. Rev. Richard Baxter of
Kidderminister Passes—English Presbyterian & Advocate of Comprehension
Kidderminster is about 128 miles NW of London,
about 2200 as the crow flies.
Kidderminster is roughly due north of Bristol, Gloucester, and
Worcester.
Richard Baxter was born on the 12th of November, 1615 at Rowton, Salop,
and died at the age of 76 on the 8th of December, 1691. We meet here this
evening to commemorate the 300 years of his death. This event is one of several
which have been arranged here in Kidderminster. Many of you will know that in
June, Professor James I. Packer gave a lecture on 'Richard Baxter: a Man for
all Ministries' and still to come, I notice, there is a lecture on the subject
'Who was Richard Baxter?' to be delivered later in the year, and an evening of
readings from his writings, a Study Day and a commemorative service. The name
of Richard Baxter will be associated with Kidderminster as long as the world
stands. The Illustrated London News for August the 7th, 1875, referring to the
great Puritan divine whose statue of white marble on its pedestal of Aberdeen
granite had been newly erected, put it in this way:
Baxter
without Kidderminster would have been but part of himself. Kidderminster
without him would have been famous for nothing but its carpets.
Even apart from this 300th anniversary it is clear
that interest in Richard Baxter is still strong. There came out a book just a
few years ago entitled The Puritans: their Origins and Successors by Dr D.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which consists of a collection of lectures delivered over
the years at the Puritan Studies and Westminster Conferences in London. This
was published in 1987 by the Banner of Truth Trust and shows considerable
interest in Baxter. Then again, selected Practical Works of Baxter were
published by Baker of Grand Rapids in 1981. That consisted of 956 double-column
closely printed pages. More recently still, James I. Packer has brought out an
important book on the Puritans entitled Among God's Giants and here again we
have many references to Richard Baxter. And I might mention a worthy Life of
Baxter written to commemorate this occasion by one of the friends who have
organised the meeting this evening, Mr W Stuart Owen.
It is surely right that we should give attention to
the theme of this lecture. After all, Richard Baxter, though a man of genius
and a brilliant leader in his day, was first of all a preacher and perhaps we
could say that he was a model preacher. For the Puritan, nothing mattered like
the gospel and so Baxter would certainly have approved of our emphasis here
tonight, Richard Baxter and his Gospel. That is what I have come to emphasise
and to try to demonstrate a little from his own writings.
But before we come to do that it is only fitting
that we should recall Richard Baxter as a very great man and that, too, in an
age of great men. He was a many-sided man, strongly independent and at times
too much so, as John Wesley was in the next century. They were both very much
Englishmen and very eminent ones. You will probably be aware that there is an
inscription at the base of Baxter's statue which reads as follows:
'Between
the years 1640 and 1660 this town was the scene of the labours of Richard
Baxter, renowned equally for his Christian learning and his pastoral fidelity.
In a stormy and divided age he advocated unity and comprehension, pointing the
way to "the eternal". Churchmen and Nonconformists united to raise
this memorial AD 1865.'
So, clearly, Baxter was a figure of great importance
who deserves to be remembered for many reasons.
First, he was a pastor. He wrote a classic book on
this subject which is still in print 300 years later and more, entitled The
Reformed Pastor brought out in 1656. Baxter catechised systematically with his
assistant here in Kidderminster at the rate of fourteen families per week, and
his intention was to teach the people by question and answer in their own home
situation, the basic teachings of Scripture. His ambition was to cover all the
eight hundred families in the parish in one year. This scheme became a model in
England and it did very great good. Almost a hundred years later, George
Whitefield, the eminent Methodist preacher, came to Kidderminster and said to a
friend: 'I was greatly refreshed to find what a sweet savour of good Mr
Baxter's doctrine works and discipline remain to this day'.
Then secondly, Baxter was an author. He wrote a
great many books. Some are great classics and are still in print: The Saint's
Everlasting Rest, A Call to the Unconverted, The Reformed Pastor, and Reliquiae
Baxterianae, which consists of his posthumous autobiography and diary of his
own times similar in some ways to Samuel Pepys' Diary and that of John Evelyn.
His unique Christian Directory of 1673 ran to no less than one million words on
the theme of the Christian life and the Christian's conduct. Stuart Owen writes
like this: 'Richard Baxter was the most prolific writer of his time. His total
literary output would be equivalent to 60 octavo volumes or some 30-40 thousand
closely printed pages.' I recall that Baxter is somewhere said to have written
over twice as many works as John Owen, and Owen wrote 16 volumes of divinity,
together with a volume of Latin works and orations, and in addition several
volumes of detailed commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. But Richard
Baxter wrote approximately twice as much as Owen! So that gives some impression
of the voluminous and prolific output of Baxter and his extraordinary
diligence, especially bearing in mind that he was a man subject to constant
pain, sickness and disability. It is therefore all the more a tribute to the
grace of God in him and to his zeal to promote the truth of God.
And then, thirdly Baxter was a man of affairs. As
well as preacher, he was chaplain in the Parliamentary army, 1642-47. He
attended, not indeed the Westminster Assembly, but he did attend the Savoy
Conference of 1661 in which Nonconformists met to discuss theological and
church issues. He lived in London for a time, he was known to Cromwell and to
the great men of his day. He was regarded as an eminent man, and a great
leader. He was in prison for his faith for one week at Clerkenwell gaol in 1669
and then again for twenty-one months in Southwark gaol, 1685-6. He was a famed
leader of the Nonconformists, but especially of the Presbyterians and he
corresponded with a wide circle of persons, being looked up to by thousands of
Christians in his time.
He was at times a rather controversial figure — a
strong advocate of unity and comprehension for at least 40 years. I may say
that too much is sometimes made of this point in that some modern ecumenists
claim him for themselves. He was not slipshod, however, in doctrine and deeply
lamented the divisions in the church of his day, and it would be not at all
fair to equate him with the spirit of modern ecumenism. However, he did plead,
certainly, for what he called 'mere Christianity'; that is, he was an advocate
of a minimal rather than a maximal creed, and he was for ever saying that he
would have been content to unite the churches on the basis of the Apostles'
Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. In this he was virtually
alone among Puritan leaders and perhaps just as well because they would not by
any means agree to so insufficient a basis of union. With many others, he was
ejected in 1662 and suffered in a notorious manner at the hands of judge
Jeffreys during that fearful time when Nonconformists in England and Scotland
were being assaulted for their faith.
But we could go on. Richard Baxter was a saint. He
was commonly referred to in and after his time as 'holy Baxter'. He was
something of a mystic in the best sense of that word.
What is perhaps most interesting to us in the times
in which we live is that he was a powerful instrument in the hands of God to
promote true revival Surely this must be so. James Packer says that as the
Vicar of Kidderminster in 1647-61 he converted 'just about the whole town'. Dr
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones could say this: 'Surely we must agree that in England in
the case of Rogers of Dedham and Baxter at Kidderminster we are entitled to
speak of revival'. Certainly these testimonies of modern writers and preachers
is correct. Baxter's own testimony is this. He said that the Parish Church of
his day held about a thousand persons but that in his time it was overflowing
and no less than five galleries had to be erected in the church. Then he tells
us this: 'On the Lord's days there was no disorder to be seen in the streets,
but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons as
you passed through the streets. In a word, when I came thither [he means to
Kidderminster] first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped
God and called on his name. When I came away there were some streets where
there was not more than one family in the side of a street that did not so'.
So, great as Baxter was in other respects, his most
important gift was that of a gospel preacher. Indeed, this is central to
everything he loved, stood for and desired to be. To him there was no greater
calling than that of a preacher of the everlasting gospel of Christ. This is
not always sufficiently remembered in centennial celebrations like the present,
but I believe that this is where he is most important and speaks now to our own
generation and to all other generations in the most powerful way. So I turn to
this subject now.
In endeavouring to make an assessment of Baxter's
gospel we have in his writings an embarrassment of riches on the subject. All
his books expound the gospel. Especially, however, this would be true of his
early book A Call to the Unconverted. Dr Packer says that 'Baxter's Call is the
first evangelistic pocket book in English which, in its year of publication,
sold twenty thousand copies and brought an unending stream of readers to faith
during Baxter's lifetime'. The importance of the book is further heightened
when we remember that it had a deep influence on George Whitefield. Those who
are familiar with Arnold Dallimore's Life of Whitefield will know that in the
first volume he shows that Whitefield benefited greatly from reading Baxter's
Call. Then in the line of great preachers we have the words of C. H. Spurgeon to
this effect: 'I remember when I used to awake in the morning [he means as a
child] the first thing I took up was Alleine's Alarm or Baxter's Call to the
Unconverted. 'Oh, those books, those books!' exclaimed Spurgeon looking back,
'I read and devoured them'.
It is well known that the Call was a link in a
chain of important conversions over a number of centuries. Richard Sibbes, the
early Puritan, wrote The Bruised Reed and this was very influential in Baxter's
own conversion as a young man. In turn, Baxter wrote A Call to the Unconverted
and amongst those who were blessed through reading this book was Philip
Doddridge who, in turn, wrote The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul.
That book was blessed to William Wilberforce who wrote A Practical View, which
proved a profoundly influential book in the life of Thomas Chalmers. So
Baxter's Call has had an exceptionally important influence in the history of
our nation over the centuries since it was written.
It is sometimes claimed that Richard Baxter was converted
through a book of Jesuit devotion. But that is not entirely correct. Robert
Parsons, an English Jesuit at the time of the Reformation had written a book
which was corrected by a certain Edmund Bunny. This work came to be known as
Bunny's Resolution and when Baxter read it as a young boy it awakened his soul.
He was about fifteen at the time. But then later he read Sibbes' Bruised Reed.
This also helped him greatly. But he himself says in his autobiography he did
not know precisely when he was converted. So we must not lay too much stress on
the claim that he was converted by a book of Jesuit devotion.
Before I come to give you a fuller outline of
Baxter's preaching and the nature of it, as we see that in his famous book, A
Call to the Unconverted, let me just mention one further point of very
considerable interest concerning Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He tells us in his
book The Puritans: their Origins and Successors: 'My real interest in the
Puritans arose in 1925 when I happened to read a new biography of Richard
Baxter'. So we must not fail to notice that Baxter's influence has been very
profound on Whitefield, Spurgeon and Dr Lloyd-Jones, and therefore it is
difficult to overstate the importance of his influence.
So much then for Richard Baxter, his life and his
general background. It is a pity that we have had to be so sketchy but my
subject requires me now to turn to this other part of the title, and that is
'The gospel which he preached'. So let us come to an analysis of Richard
Baxter's book A Call to the Unconverted in order to see what the gospel was
which he preached.
First he informs us how the book came to be
written. In his autobiography he tells us: 'I also published A Call to the
Unconverted. The occasion was my converse with Bishop Ussher of Armagh while I
was in London'. He says rather modestly, that he 'supposed that he could do
nothing but what was done as well or better already'. Then he says that he
published this little book at last 'which God hath blessed with unexpected
success beyond all the rest that I have written except The Saint's Rest.' In a
little more than a year there were about twenty thousand of them printed by my
own consent and ten thousand since, beside many thousands by stolen impression
which poor men stole for lucre's sake. Through God's mercy I have had
information of about almost whole households converted by this small book which
I set so light by [he means he considered himself to be so unfit to write] and
as if all this in England, Scotland and Ireland were not mercy enough to me,
God (since I was silenced) hath sent it over on his message to many beyond the
sea; for when Mr [John] Eliot had printed all the Bible in the Indians'
language, he next translated this my Call to the Unconverted.
Let us come now to consider some concluding
thoughts on Baxter and on the gospel he preached. I quote J. I. Packer again:
'The content of Baxter's gospel was not in any way distinctive. It was the
historic, Puritan, evangelical New Testament message of ruin, redemption and
regeneration'. This certainly comes across to us very plainly as we read
Baxter's Call. It raises the question, Why then was it so successful? There was
nothing remarkable in the content of what he says other than that he was
preaching the good old evangelical message which we are so familiar with today,
and yet which in our age appears not to be anything like so successful as it
was in Baxter's time. What have we to learn as lessons for our own day? I would
offer the ten following points of comment:
First of all, we notice Baxter's directness. He
talks to us as if he were at our side or rather as though he was summoning us
to sit in the pew in front of his pulpit. He takes his hearers almost by the
throat. He addresses them as 'you', he speaks to their innermost thoughts, he
searches their hearts and he exposes them to themselves. That surely is one of
the greatest gifts as a preacher that he had.
Then second, we notice that he brings forth reasons
for everything. Baxter was a great exhorter but he was never a ranter. He does
not simply shout or make an assault on the will or emotions. He addresses the
mind of his hearers. This is characteristic of Puritan preaching. Man, they
said, is a rational being and he needs to know why he is being called on to
turn to God, and then he needs to be informed how he must turn. So reasons are
brought forward, everything is explained, opened up and elucidated.
Then third, Baxter rips up the conscience of his
hearers as with a ploughshare. Almost every word and sentence is a challenge to
the conscience of sinful men. It drives them out of every refuge of lies and
summons them before God's judgment-seat, exposes them and makes them see their
need to flee to Christ.
Then fourthly, we should point out how Baxter was
entirely thorough. He leaves nothing unsaid. He says it and says it again. He
is not afraid of multiplying his exhortations. He covers the ground this way
and that, realising that the sinner is all too ready to find refuge in other
places than in Christ. So there is a thoroughness which marks everything that
he says.
Then fifthly, we notice his clarity of method. In a
few words we summarise it like this: he announces his main text and then he
states the doctrines which he is to draw from the text. These doctrines he then
proves and having proved them from Scripture he opens them up and gives a
relentless application, bending this way and that way in order to catch the
hearers and to look at their various excuses, to answer their objections and to
collect them all, as it were, like a flock of wandering sheep and bring them to
the Shepherd. The method is clear: there is nothing obscure in what he is
saying.
Then sixthly, he deals with primary truths. He is
talking all the time about heaven and hell, about God and Christ, about faith
and repentance, about sin and the evils of it, about the judgment to come,
about God's knowledge of men's hearts. With these great and central gospel
facts he corners and sets upon his hearers and he is in full pursuit like a
lion after his prey.
Then seventhly, we may notice his deep compassion
and profound pastoral concern. He cared deeply for the lost state of men. He
had a burning heart of love to Christless sinners. This adds an unction and
gives peculiar tenderness and sweetness even to his most direct approaches to
the consciences of men.
Eighthly, he is careful to answer every conceivable
objection. We have seen and noticed this point. The Puritan evangelist removed
every shred and piece of self-righteousness from the sinner. He stripped him
bare, took away his armour and left him naked in the sight of God. It was a
great gift which they had and something from which we can all learn today.
Ninthly, we have to mention that he was a past
master at unmasking sin. He shows sin to be exceeding sinful. He shows that it
is delightful only when seen in a false light and that the essential character
of sin is hateful and detestable. God is the enemy of those who persist in it.
He makes sin appear to be sin.
Then tenthly, he presents God in Christ as supremely
delightful and desirable. He does this, of course, especially in that wonderful
book The Saint Is Everlasting Rest, but he does it everywhere and he does it in
the book which has been our centre of attention today, A Call to the
Unconverted. What profound lessons we have all to learn today from Richard
Baxter as a preacher of Christ's gospel. We surely cannot hesitate to affirm
that we need in Britain today another Baxter. We need men who can preach God's
Word to the masses like this.
Picture Kidderminster again in Baxter's time: the
Sabbath days that he speaks about in which the crowds of people on the Lord's
day were either singing the psalms as they went about or else speaking to one
another of the content of the sermons. What an extraordinary difference between
that and the typical Sunday we know of today in our country! Kidderminster I am
afraid, is no longer as it was in Baxter's time, but then is anywhere in our
country?
O for more men like this! O for such a preacher as
Richard Baxter was! O for this plain, searching dealing with the souls of
sinners! O that God would raise up a thousand Richard Baxters and that we would
have in our pulpits men of this calibre, and in the open air, on the radio and
on our television, preaching in every corner of the land! May God hasten the
day when such things shall be and when Baxter's gospel, in all its plainness
and power, shall be trumpeted again across the housetops and in the churches of
our beloved land!
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